Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A64986
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An explicatory catechism: or, An explanation of the assemblies shorter catechism Wherein those principles are enlarged upon especially, which obviate the great and growing errors of Popery; useful for those families that desire to hold fast the form of sound words.
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Vincent, Thomas, 1634-1678.
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1675
(1675)
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Wing V434; ESTC R220763
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119,453
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302
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and hereby the sinner honours the equity of the threatning by his tears acknowledging that his blood was due 2. Newness of life Here the sinner acknowledgeth perfect obedience to be still his duty which honors the equity of Gods Commandments Q. But that with all requisite distinctness we may apprehend this great affair let us take a view of some of the most considerable and important causes which concur to the producing this excellent effect the discharge and Iustification of a sinner and state their several interests and concernments in their respective influences upon and contributions towards it because Iustification is a main Article of our Faith and therefore How doth Free-grace Iustifie A. The Free-grace of God is the first wheel that sets all the rest in motion It s contribution is that of a Proegumenal cause or internal motive disposing God to send his Son that sinners believing might be Justified freely by his grace through the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ Q. But did not Christ die to render God good to mankind A. Christ died not â—o render God good to mankind he was so eternally but that with the honour of his Justice he might â—xert and display his goodness which contriv'd and made it self this way to break forth into the world Q. How is Christs satisfaction concern'd in our Iustification A. It is doubly concerned in it 1. In respect of God as a Pro-catartick cause which is an external as the Proâ—gumenal is an internal moving cause and is of infinite merit and impeâ—rative power for the sake of which God is reconciling himself unto the world in Christ not imputing their Trespasses unto them 2 Cor. 5. 19. 2. In respect of the Law of Works Christs satisfaction Justifieth us formally as our proper legal righteousness Q. Why do you call it our Righteousness A. Because it becomes imputed to us upon our believing Faith being our Gospel-Title by pleading which we lay claim to all the benefits accruing from the merit of Christs performance to all effects uses and purposes as if it had been personally our own Q. But why do you call it our legal Righâ—â—â—â—â—ness A. Because thereby the Law of God owns it self fully apaid and acquiesceth 〈◊〉 it as in full reparations and amends â—ade unto it for the injury and dishonour râ—eived by the sin of man Q And may we plead this against 〈◊〉 the challenges and accusations of the law A. Yes Q. And is this our legal Righteousness required in the first Covenant that of Works which is thus imputed upon our account wholly without us in our Redemer A. Yes Q. But is our Evangelical Righteousness required in the second Covenant without us as our legal Righteousness required in the old is A. No for though Christ performed the Conditions of the Law and satisfied for our non-performance yet it is our selves that must perform the conditions of the Gospel It is not Christ but we that must repent and believe Q. But there are some that tell us that Christ hath also performed for us the conditions of the Gospel that he hath believed perfectly and repented perfectly and that all is ours what ought we to think of this Opinion A. If we judge of it in its clear consequence it is both absurd and blasphemous as if Christ had a Saviour to belâ—eve in for pardon and life or sin to repent of and sorrow for and mortifie Q. How is this Opinion absurd A. As it supposeth a perfect Saviour to stand in need of a Saviour Q. How is it blasphemous A. As it makes Christ the Son of God a sinner who is God and man Q. How doth the Gospel Iustifie A. As it is the Law of Faith that publisheth and declareth to us upon what terms we shall be Justified Q. And is the Gospel our great Charter and Gods Wâ—rrant under his broad Seal that he that believeth shall not be condemned A. Yes Q. How doth Faith Iustifie A. By vertue of the Law promulgated and publish'd as it is our Evangelical righteousness or our keeping the Gospel-Law which suspends Justification upon believing Q. Doth Faith pretend to no merit or vertue of its own A. No but professedly avows its dependance upon the merit of Christs satisfaction and laies hold on it as our legal Righteousness Q. Nor can it shew any other Title to be it self our Evangelical righteousness but only Gods sanction Law or Decree establishing it who chose this Act of believing to the honour of being the justifying Act because it so highly honoureth Christ A. No. Q. May this be illustrated to us by some apt resemblance A. Yes the Act of believing is as the Sâ—lver but Gods authority in the Gospel-sanction is the Kings Coin or Image stampt upon it which gives it all its value as to Justification Q. Without this stamp could it never have been current A. No. Q. And if God had set this stamp on any other Grace as Love would that then have been current and have Iustified us as Faith doth now A. Yes Q. How doth God Iustifie A. God justifieth in a proper sense two waies First as a Legislator Secondly as a Judge Q How doth God Iustifie as a Legislator A. He Justifies as a Legislator enacting by his Soveraign authority that sweet and gracious Law of the New Covenant by vertue of whose tenor every sinner that believes is Justified from the Guilt of sin from which he could not be Justified by the Law of Moses Acts 13. 39. Q How doth God Iustifie as a Iudge A. 2. As a Judge he may in three respects be said to Justifie a Believer First Forthwith upon his believing God owneth him secretly within himself as a person justified God esteems and approves of him as in that state unto which he hath by believing a Title good in Law an indefeaâ—ible right Secondly At the moment of dissolution God Justifieth as the Judge of all the earth passing a private Sentence and a ward unto everlasting life upon every believing Soul Thirdly But eminently at the last day when the Ancient of daies shall take the Throne and in open Court before the whole Creation by publick sentence for ever acquit and discharge Believers at that great and last Assizes Q. How are works said to Iustiâ—ie A. 6. As they Justifie our Faith or demonstrate before God and man and to our own Consciences that our Faith is not a dead and barren but a true and living one by its fruitfulness in well-doing Q. How doth the Spirit of God Iustifie A. 7. The Spirit of God Justifieth two waies First Directly by working Faith in the heart as the Author of that justifying Grace Secondly Reflexively as he clears up Justification to a Believers Conscience by discovering the truth of Faith by working Assurance and by sealing a Believer to the day of Redemption Q. 34. What is Adoption A. Adoption is an act of Gods free-grace
most promptly and apertly manifest the native and genuine sense In which part without boasting it may be said that the Protestants exceed the Papists and carry away the Palm Because their Interpreters are wont 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Occumenius saith in Eph. 5. to evert the propriety of speech and to turn all things into the uncertain conjectures of Allegories That what Epiphanius in Nicolaitis said of Origen we may say of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Allegorice explicâ—t quicquid potest He allegorized whatsoever he could Indeed it is said that he interpreted literally Matthew 19. 12. and in the same sense became an Eunuch himself And so the Papists in like manner interpret mostly in the Allegorie excepting that known place This is my Body with a far greater and more dangerous mistake than that of Origen's of that kind of Eunuchs But this Head is too general to be laid down without some necessary cautions Take these few 1. Augustini Regula tenenda est lib. 3. de doctrina Christiana Cap. 5 10 and 11. Cavendum est nè figuratam locutionem ad literam accipiamus vice versa nè locutio propria in figuratum sensum torqueatur Let 's take heed of taking figures literally and of wresting the proper sense into figures 2. It is to be supposed that some places of Scripture are true both in the Type and Antitype both in the literal and mystical sense And Verba sacrae Scripturae sunt praegnantia pariunt gemellos sensum geminum admittunt The words of Sâ—cred Writ are pregnant with matter very fruitful and sometimes bear twins and admit a double sense And 't is an unerring Rule in Divinity Scripture is alwaies to be expounded in the largest sense unless there be in or about the Text some particular restriction to limit it and thus those words Let another take his Office are true both of Doeg and Iudas 3. It is to be observed that in Prophecies some particulars agree to the Type and not to the Truth some to the Truth and not to the Type or to the Type in one sense to the Truth in another Take this Head because somewhat large in its particular branches 1. Some particulars agree to the Type and not to the Truth Psal. 40. 12. 2. Some to the Truth and not to the Type Psal. 16. 10. with Acts 2. 29. and 13. 35 36 37. 3. Or to the Type in one sense and to the Truth in another So in those Psalms wherein David is a Type of Christ As Psal. 2. and 16. and 22. and those in which Solomon as psal 45. and 72. Some things are spoken that must of necessity be understood of them in one Notion of Christ in another Of Pharaoh's Daughter espoused to Solomon and the Church to Christ the one typified by the other Psal. 45. the same may be said Gatak in Isa. 42. But how may we know when we are to interpret in the literal and when in the mystical sense These three Rules will in some measure direct us 1. The first is Augustines golden Rule Si praeceptiva locutio est aut flagitium aut facinus vetans c. If it be a precept forbidding any lewdness or commanding something profitable or beneficial there is no figure in the words Take eat this do in remembrance of me This do ye as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me Indeed This is my Body c. cannot be taken in the literal sense for the reasons to be mentioned afterwards But take eat c. because a preceptive speech and commanding a necessary profitable duty and I am afraid a much neglected duty too we are not to suppose a figure in the words If there be sins of Omission as without controversie there are then those who have not communicated in this Ordinance or not frequently cannot but be found guilty of a dangerous sinful neglect Nothing but ignorance and Phanaticism in the most proper and literal sense can turn this divine precept into an Allegory Some are so fond as to think that this Precept imports no more than feeding upon Christ out of and in contempt of this Sacrament Such self-conceited Gnosticks cannot rationally expect the Churches welcom Eat O Friends drink yea drink abundantly O beloved And if ever such Spiritualists were really fed by Christ they were no doubt better fed than taught But if any man seem to be contentious we have not so learned Christ neither the Churches of God 2. When the Text taken properly affords a fit sense nor doth ought appear in the Context or other places collated that may cross it it is not safe running into metaphorical senses And thus we understand those Buyers and Sellers whom our Saviour cast out of the Tâ—mple Mat. 21. 12. in the Letter and not in the Allegory although some Novellists of our times giving way to their own luxuriant fancies have turned this and all the History of the Gospel into a mysterie or rather a groundless conceit of their own brains 3. Indeed when the words taken in the Letter are absurd and contradictory to sense and reason we must of necessity apply our selves to the figurate sense And surely he is bruitish and hath not the understanding of a man that will Interpret against all sense and reason Reason doth not contradict sense nor Faith reason but only correct them when they exercise themselves in great matters and in things too high for them and beyond their Sphear And 't is fit that sense should give place to reason and reason to Faith as it did in Abraham's case who Rom 4. 18. against Hope or rather beyond Hope as the words may be better rendred i. e. above all causes arguments and appearances of natural Hope such as reason and humane understanding could afford or reach to believed in Hope i. e. in Hope grounded upon the truth and power of God For although there be in Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some things hard to be understood yet there is nothing in it repugnant to right reason Although in this life and imperfect state we see 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 through a glass darkly and do know 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but in part And Quoad nos there may not alwaies be ratio rei â—creditae yet there is alwaies ratio credendi Because infinite wisdom cannot be deceived and infinite goodness will not deceive And according to the forementioned Rules we may be satisfied against the Papists literal interpretation of that known place This is my Body 1. Because the letter is contrary and repugnant to our senses which the Scripture it self intimates to be of infallible certainty 2. It is absurd and contradictive of right reason 3. There appears much in the context to cross it nothing at all to countenance it 4. Because other places collated expresly thwart and contradict it 2. Rule Let the fuller Scripture make out the shorter We must compare the shorter place with the